Book Club Kits

We now have 22 book club kits in our collection! Book club kits are designed to give you everything you need to run a book club. Each kit has 10 books and supplemental material including a folder to facilitate the discussion. Certain kits may also include the movie adaptation of the book for your club’s viewing enjoyment. Each kit may be checked out for 6 weeks. Customers are welcome to get the next kit ahead of their meeting for seamless distribution.

Our kits are:

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline (2 kits; includes PBS documentary)—890L Lexile Measure Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of unexpected friendship, and the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne TylerBrimming with the luminous insight, humor, and compassion that are Anne Tyler’s hallmarks, this novel takes us across three generations of the Whitshanks, their shared stories and long-held secrets, all the unguarded and richly lived moments that combine to define who and what they are as a family.

The Round House by Louise Erdrich—790 Lexile MeasureWhen his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reserve in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 14-year-old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family.

Where’d You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple—HL820L Lexile MeasureTo her Microsoft-guru husband, Bernadette is a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect; and to 15-year-old Bee, she’s a best friend and simply, Mom. Bee has aced her report card and claimed her reward: a family trip to Antarctica. For Bernadette, who has become increasingly agoraphobic, such a trip is problematic. Then Bernadette disappears.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (this kit has 8 books)—950L Lexile MeasureWaging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng—870L Lexile MeasureEverything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughter, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova (one kit includes 8 books; another includes 10 + the DVD)—860L Lexile MeasureAlice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (+ DVD)—800L Lexile MeasureNine-year-old Oskar Schell is a precocious Francophile who idolizes Stephen Hawking and plays the tambourine extremely well. He’s also a boy struggling to come to terms with his father’s death in the World Trade Center attacks. As he searches New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key he left behind, Oskar discovers much more than he could have imagined.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (+ DVD)—810L Lexile MeasureIn a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, 16-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place.

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman (+ DVD)—850-875L Lexile RangeA novel set on a remote Australian island, where a childless couple live quietly running a lighthouse, until a boat carrying a baby washes ashore.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall KellyInspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this novel reveals an incredible story of love, redemption, and terrible secrets that were hidden for decades.

The Whole Town’s Talking by Fannie FlaggElmwood Springs, Missouri, is a small town like any other, but something strange is happening out at the cemetery. “Still Meadows,” as it’s called, is anything but still. Fannie Flagg tells a surprising story of life, afterlife, and the mysterious goings-on of ordinary people in a town.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr—880L Lexile MeasureA New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman (2 kits)—710L Lexile MeasureOne by one, a number of people of varying ages and backgrounds transform a trash-filled inner-city lot into a productive and beautiful garden, and in doing so, the gardeners are themselves transformed.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle—740L Lexile MeasureMeg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen—730L Lexile MeasureWater for Elephants is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford.

The Great Alone by Kristin HannahIn 1974, a former Vietnam POW, suffering from flashbacks and nightmares, moves his family to Alaska to live off the grid in an attempt to find peace, restoration, and freedom. They will also face dangers, both internally and externally, as they face the ultimate test of the human spirit.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste NgLittle Fires Everywhere explores the weight of long-held secrets and the ferocious pull of motherhood and the danger of believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster, or heartbreak.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan—875 Lexile MeasureAfter a layoff during the Great Recession sidelines his tech career, Clay Jannon takes a job at the titular bookstore in San Francisco, and soon realizes that the establishment is a facade for a strange secret.

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle ZevinThe irascible A. J. Fikry, owner of Island Books, has already lost his wife. Now his most prized possession, a rare book, has been stolen from right under his nose. One night upon closing, he discovers a toddler in his children's section with a note from her mother saying she can no longer raise her. It doesn't take long for the locals to notice the transformation of both bookstore and owner, especially to the lovely yet eccentric sales rep, Amelia Loman.

Magpie Murders by Anthony HorowitzMasterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the listener becomes the detective.

The Woman in the Window by A.J. FinnAnna Fox lives alone -- a recluse in her New York City home, drinking too much wine, watching old movies...and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move next door: a father, a mother, their teenaged son. The perfect family. But when Anna sees something she shouldn't, her world begins to crumble -- and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this Hitchcockian thriller, no one and nothing are what they seem.

Call Readers’ Services at 336.883.3638 to find out more information about these kits!